Greg Hunt: Dredge dump 'no threat' to Reef

A controversial plan to dredge the seabed and dump waste near the Great Barrier Reef marine park has earnt the approval of Environment Minister Greg Hunt. But environmentalists are skeptical about the protections in place for the World Heritage area.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Queensland's Barrier Reef has long been a battleground between environmentalists on one side and developers on the other. Now it's entering yet another chapter.

Environmentalists claim the reef is now under threat from a dredging program to create the world's biggest coal port on the North Queensland coast.

But industry groups say the activists are increasingly hysterical and that the port will revive the resources sector and help boost tourism.

The federal Environment Minister promises that strict protections are in place, but the row is certain to continue, as Peter McCutcheon reports.

GREG HUNT, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: It is already one of Australia's most significant industrial sites.

MICHAEL ROCHE, QLD RESOURCES COUNCIL: Abbot Point is a very suitable deepwater port.

LARISSA WATERS, GREENS SENATOR: This is a World Heritage area, it's not a highway for coal and gas ships.

PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: It's the Federal Government's biggest environmental decision so far, giving the green light to more than three million cubic litres of dredge waste being dumped inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

It's a welcome move for the resources sector, allowing a massive port expansion at Abbot Point in North Queensland to service new coal developments in the Galilee Basin, hundreds of kilometres inland.

MICHAEL ROCHE: It's another step along the way towards getting the financial go-ahead for these large mining projects.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But this port expansion is coming under extraordinary environmental scrutiny at a time UNESCO's World Heritage listing of this Australian icon is under review.

LARISSA WATERS: It's almost like the Abbott Government is daring the UN to downgrade the status of the reef. These are very high stakes.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Great Barrier Reef is struggling. Coral cover is at an historical low due to cyclones, agricultural run-off and outbreaks of the dreaded crown-of-thorns starfish.

But it's port developments along the reef coastline that have caught the attention of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

RICHARD LECK, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: The committee has expressed extreme concern about industrialisation of the reef coast in the past and they've provided the Government with a number of recommendations to improve their management.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Those recommendations included an effective moratorium on new port developments. And if Australia doesn't satisfy the World Heritage Committee, it runs the risk of the reef being listed as in danger, with serious consequences for the multibillion-dollar tourist industry. So the Abbot Point project, turning this port into potentially one of the biggest coal terminals in the world, comes at a sensitive time.

RICHARD LECK: It's the issue of industrialisation absolutely is front and centre of their minds when they think about the Great Barrier Reef. And given that this is the first major decision that Minister Hunt has considered with regards to the Great Barrier Reef, he really has failed at that first test.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But the minister says he's confident his decision will pass World Heritage scrutiny, arguing he's considerably scaled back proposals put forward under the previous Labor government and imposed strict conditions.

GREG HUNT: These are dramatic and some would say far tougher than necessary conditions. I take responsibility for those.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But the critical issue here is why the dredging waste should be allowed to be dumped inside the marine park.

GREG HUNT: All of the scientific advice I've received is that not only will that have a minimal outcome, a minimal impact, but in fact we will have improved water quality with the toughest conditions for the net benefit Australia's ever had.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Environment groups say there were other options - a longer jetty or disposing of the material inland. The resources industry argues these proposals either had environmental problems of their own or simply cost too much.

At a time Australia's management of the Great Barrier Reef is under increasing scrutiny, do you agree it's not a good look to have material dumped inside the marine park?

MICHAEL ROCHE: Oh, well, if there was another option, then that would be good, but in this case, and port by port, you have to look at what's available.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: One unresolved problem for the dredging program is exactly where the material will be dumped. The original disposal point, although well away from coral, was near a World War II plane wreck that the local divers and the RSL wanted preserved. And although the port authority has since identified alternative sites, no final decision has been made.

RICHARD LECK: How can they approve something when they don't know where it's going to occurred. It's like asking for the development application for a building to be approved when you don't have a location for the building.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The battle over Abbot Point dredging has been going on for nearly five years and the final chapter is a crucial decision on the actual disposal site. That's now in the hands of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which in theory could even deny a dumping permit.

LARISSA WATERS: And they need to make a decision that is protective of the reef and puts the reef before the profits of the big mining companies.

GREG HUNT: It's completely a matter for them. They will act independently, as they should.

LEIGH SALES: Peter McCutcheon with that report.

Editorís note: the animation of the Abbott Point development in this report depicts an earlier version of the project, that has since been modified.